THE WENDY HUT

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6536, 18 February 1928, Page 7

THE WENDY HUT

would sail tho seas in a ship and keep time with tho stars. If only the sailors could look at his clock and know where they were! How he laboured! Oh, tho bitter, bitter disappointments! But in 1759 John Harrison succeded. The first chronometer was made and John Harrison won £20,000. I don’t think he cared twopence about the money, but I think he would like you to 'look at his chronometer next time you are on a ship. It has been iniproyed since, but every ship that sails the seas carries a little bit of John Harrison’s'heart in her chronometer.

The Brown Man’s Water Bottle - Just an old broken bottlo lying on a dust heap! Yet if you think backwards for a moment, that bottle becomes a thing of great importance. Now there was a time when there where no bottles, and at that . time there lived a brown man somewhere in the plains between China, and India This man had to think of a -way to carry water wherever he went, and, as he had no tools but stones and knew nothing about clay or metal, his problem was what you would call a

"puzzler.” And it puzzled him terribly till he saw the wild gourd growing there in the hot sunshine. (A gourd is something like a vegetable marorw with a very hard rind. ) Tho brown man thought hard, then he scooped out all tho seeds, filled the gourd with water —and made the first bottle. But it did not satisfy him for long. If he ran the precious water fell out. So he took some grass and bound it round tho top part of a young gourd which was growing on a stem, and of course, the gourd grew where it was not bound, and remained small where the grass was tied round it. When the man cut it off the plant he had a bottle with a neck, —and we have never been able to Improve on that shape. , He also placed stones on the gourd while it was growing so that it might grow flat; then he could sling it on his back and run very quickly without spilling tho water, for a flat bottle does not roll like a round one. And that is how all bottles, jugs, and vases have come down to us, — just from the brown man’s gourd.

Fairies and Grown-ups "Oh! hark to tho wind up the chimney! ” The Grown-Ups say other times, too “A-moaning, a-wailing, a-groaning! It’s terrible stormy to-day.’’ The wind on the chimney? .What nonsense! If only they knew that it seems Like thousands of Elves singing sleepsongs To bring Pixy-babies sweet dreams! “Oh! hark to the rain on the window!’ Tho Griwn-Ups say other times, too. “A-pitter-pat, chatter, and splutter, I wish it would stop, dear, don't you?” „ The rain on the window? How dreadful ! To think that there’s no one can sec The raindrops are really all Fairies, Who flutter and beckon to me! “Oh! Look at the leaves on the path-way!” The Grown-Ups will sigh with dis-

” Fairies and Grown-ups.” “The Eain-drops are really all Fairies who flutter and beckon to me.”

may. “So ugly, so dingy, and faded. They ought to be sfept right awey.” The leaves on the pathway? My goodness! How can people be so absurd? Not to see each leaf hides a brown Sprite, How grieved they would be if they heard. If the wind in tho chimney is Elfsong; If raindrops arc Fairies at play: If dead leaves belong to the Goblins Who hide in their shelter all day— Then—isn’t it lovely, and thrilling To think that though Grown-Ups may sneer, Wc children are friendly with Fairies, And are living in Fairyland, here!

Wendy’s Little Dressmaker sly Dear Children, It's sometimes rather difficult to think of a fancy dress for a Billy-Boy, isn’t it? So suppose wc do one for him now. If the boy is small and plump, a “Peter Pan Lantern” (or Cape Gooseberry to give it its proper name) makes an unusual costume. You can make it from non-inflam-mable crcpo paper in a bright, deep orange shade. First of all, cut, the little bodice. This should be the depth of the boy from his shoulder to just above the hips and wide enough to fit comfortably round the chest X r old the paper -widthways and lengthways and cut like Diagram A. Be sure to re-

member always to allow very generous turnings when making anything in paper, so that there is no risk of tho garment tearing away at tho scams. The little trousers are cut like Diagram B after the paper has been folddcd. Make them full enough to be

Mating a fancy dress for a BiDy Boy “Peter Pan’s Lantern.”

gathered well up round the legs and waist. (You'll And it a good plan to cut them out in newspaper first o£ all. to ensure a good fit.) Sew up the side and little inner leg seams; then make a wide casing round the waist and leg openings through which you can run elastics.

The cap is made from two pieces of paper cut like Diagram C, roughly eight inches high. Sew them together and stitch a length of millinery wire from ear to car inside the cap, so that you can bend it to suit tho face. A wire stitched round the edge of the crown will also make it stronger. A somewhat similar cap-shape, the other way up. depending from a tall cane as indicated in the sketch, will suggest a lantern. Dull green stockings, and shoes covered with orange paper will complete the costume.